Teaching with Hands-On Lessons {algebra style}

My new placement in 9th Grade Inclusion Algebra began a couple of weeks ago. I have been busy transitioning from the preschool setting into the high school setting. Thankfully, it has been much easier than I imagined! 

The first thing I have realized is this: Teenagers love cute, fun, and creative just as much as preschoolers!

We have been doing Color by Numbers with equations and inequalities, Grungeball to practice conversions, and tons of math centers!

To see some of the ways that I am incorporating all of the components of the TEAM Rubric into a high school algebra classroom, visit my TpT store and check out my most recent TEAM lesson on matching equations to a story line and unit conversions!

Stay tuned for more, Teaching in the A.M.

Teaching with a Transportation Theme and Letter T {complete TEAM lesson}

The Transportation Theme is always fun with preschool age students! 

Who doesn't love things that go? 

Despite my initial excitement, it was surprisingly difficult to come up with a variety of activities to connect to this theme and the letter T!

After a little brainstorming and Pinterest searching, I came up with some fun exciting for the kiddos!

Activity 1: Letter People T Puppet, Song, and Air-write 

          Every week, the students meet a new letter person. If you have access to the Letter People curriculum, I highly advise you use it. Although we do things a little differently, the students love meeting our new letter person each week!

If you don't have the Letter People, you could always use another puppet and play the song from the YouTube videos available!

Activity 2: Airplane Writing in Shaving Cream

            Because we are developing fine motor skills and several students have sensory difficulties, this activity is great! Not only does it tie to the theme of transportation and the letter of the week, T, but it also engages all of these other areas. Students were given a blue paper plate to mimic the sky which was filled with shaving cream. I "hooked" students by asking them if they wanted to be pilots and fly their airplane (finger) through the clouds (shaving cream).

Activity 3: Transportation Engineer (Shape matching)

I printed these templates on construction paper and cut out the corresponding shapes on different colors of construction paper. Students had to match the shape to their mode of transportation and glue the pieces. For enrichment, I had my higher level students write a short sentence to say whether the transportation they selected traveled in the air, water, or land (which was our key focus for this theme).

The Shape Template for matching and the Transportation Template for the transportation blueprints can be found for FREE by followng these links to my TpT store

Activity 4: Transportation Sort {land, air, water} and "We All Go Traveling By" Song

To learn more about this activity and the script and activities for introducing the Letter Person T, please download my Complete TEAM Lesson.  

The kids loved this theme and learned so much with all of our activities! 

I hope your students have just as much fun!

Stay tuned for more, Teaching in the A.M.!

Teaching with Apple Theme {activities and door decoration}

Each week, the preschool class in which I was completing my student teaching had a new theme. 

The theme a few weeks ago was apples, so we had a week jam-packed with all types of apple taste-testing and apple activities. Keep in mind, I have two different groups of students and each group only comes two days a week for half of a day, so the number of activities we can do are limited. 

Activity 1: Apple Taste Test (red, yellow, green) and Graphing with Dotters

Activity 2: "Libby's Apples" by Discovery Education and Painting with Apple Halves

Activity 3: Story time with Apple Books and Taste Test Apple Sauce and Cider

Because we had such great crafts created from the Painting with Apple Halves activity and Graphing Taste Test activity, I decided that I would create a door decoration that would allow me to display their hard work. 

Door Directions

The door is covered with blue paper and our phrase was "Best of the Bunch." We are required to have a view through the window, so I cut out a square and scrunched red tissue paper in the shape of an apple to hide that ugly cut out. I used green tissue paper for the leaf and twisted brown construction paper for the stem. 

Then, I cut out the apples that the students created by painting with apple halves as stamps. Because I have two different groups, I had one group create single apples. I needed more of the single apples, so I asked for volunteers in the second group. Those that did not volunteer created the baskets with three apples (which coincided with the video and our number of the week).

The upper corner of the door also contains part of my tree which was created using tissue paper and the directions provided below for the large tree. 

Tree Decoration

Let me just say, I have never gotten so many compliments on a door decoration, and it was all because of this tree which is actually easy to create! For the trunk, we used a thick, brown paper similar to butcher paper. They had it in our gym to cover the floor for dances and special events. We cut it to size and scrunched. I was not hopeful when we finished scrunching, but do not be discouraged. Once you get everything else up, yours, too, will look fabulous!

Next, I used green paper and cut out the shape of the top of the tree. From there, it is so simple! To create the tree, I used four different shades of green tissue paper cut into small squares. I covered one section of my template at a time with a large glue stick. Then, I crumpled up each tissue paper square and stuck it on. It is literally that simple! Just glue, crumple, and stick until your tree is full. When I finished, I had a few areas I wasn't happy with so I added extra "leaves" as necessary by taping up extra sections until I was happy with the overall shape. 

Hope you enjoy this as much as my class (and school) has enjoyed it! 

Every teacher and student that walked by stopped to gawk!

Stay tuned for more, Teaching in the A.M.!

Teaching with the 5 Senses

Student teaching has been amazing! 

It has been very busy, though, so I haven't had time to share much of what I am doing in the classroom. However, I had my first observation and got amazing results, so I thought it was time to share a new lesson. 

Our theme this week is Five Senses. 

To introduce the concept, I use a surprise bag (simply, a solid bag with a mystery item). The surprise bag contained a Mr. Potato head with missing eyes, ears, nose, hands, and mouth. 

Students felt of the bag and described what they felt (hard or soft, heavy or light, sound or no sound, etc.) and made a prediction. Students didn't realize it, but they were using their senses to make the guess. I then asked students to suppose what it would be like if they didn't have each of these body parts and related it to the five senses. 

We engaged in a little discussion and then sang a fabulous Five Senses song that is sung to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It." This reinforced the idea that we use our eyes to see, nose to smell, mouth to taste, ears to hear, and hands to feel. 

Students then used their five senses to explore a mystery box. They dictated their responses and teachers and assistants modeled handwriting. Their success was then measured using a fabulous dictation rubric.

To get the complete lesson including the Five Senses Song, Mystery Box Activity, and Dictation Rubric, visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Purchase Here, Complete Five Senses TEAM Lesson Plan.

Stay tuned for more, Teaching in the A.M.

Teaching with New Kids {first day of student teaching}

Student Teaching Orientation is finally over and our first day in the classroom is Monday!

Luckily, I have had the chance to work with my cooperating teacher in the past, so I felt comfortable to ask about a few things that I wanted to do on my first day to introduce myself to students. These are simple ways to introduce yourself to students and parents whether you are a teacher or a student teacher like myself!

My intro to the students' families will be simple, a cute newsletter which introduces myself and briefly explains my role in the classroom. You will be able to find this in my TpT store soon!

To introduce myself to students, I will be using a Me Bag.

This is a fun way to tell students a little bit about yourself as a person and as a teacher. 

It is rather simple, you choose any bag and fill it with items that represent your favorite things, your personality, etc. Even the bag itself can have special meaning! For my Pre-k kids, I will use items that they will find exciting. Depending on your classroom, you may simply present the bag or you may present the item and have students guess what the item represents.

My Me Bag will include:

1. A stuffed dog to represent our little Yorkie and Pom-a-poo who are like our other children. {kids always love to hear about animals!} 

2. Always, and I mean always include a book at the students grade level and express your love to read EVEN IF YOU DON'T! {how can your students love reading if you don't model that love} 

3. I will also include a family photo so the children can see my daughter and my husband. {they love to know you are a person outside of teaching}

4. Paint to represent my love of crafting. {what 3/4 year old doesn't get excited about paint?!}

In the past I included more items, but I want to keep it at a minimum for my specific group of students. I suggest that you select items that relate to your students' age and typical interests. Some more examples of items to include is a football (sports), flower (gardening), food (favorite), colored item (favorite color), etc.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE, TEACHING IN THE A.M!

Teaching with Facebook {yes, I said Facebook}

Nerves are officially in full force as student teaching orientation is only four days away! I have been spending my last few days of freedom in my pajamas, but I've also been doing lots of productive "research!"

I have created a Pinterest board where I am pinning great advice that I have found from other student teachers and veteran teachers who blog advice for newbies. I have also found some great ideas for gifts and planning. If you are interested, follow my Pinterest board using the widget on the right side of the page labeled, "Connect with the A.M."

The best thing I have found in my browsing, or research as I like to call it, has been on Facebook!

It is a great Facebook group sponsored by the National Association of Special Education Teachers. The page is just a great place for networking with other Special Education teachers from across the globe. Members can ask questions, share experiences, post photos of resources and their classrooms, and tons more! It has been amazing as I am reading information from both new and old teachers which is current-- instant for that matter!

Check it out, NASET Facebook Group.

Stay tuned for more, Teaching in the A.M.

Teaching in Math Class {with reading}

While the importance of reading is always emphasized, it still seems as if it is only emphasized in the reading or English language arts classroom. The fabulous thing about reading is that it is great in any classroom and any subject area-- even MATH!

Because I am beginning my first student teaching placement in a lower elementary setting in two weeks, I have been browsing through different lower elementary articles. I {luckily} stumbled across this amazing math-related book list by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. 

The NAEYC created this amazing list of math-related children's books. Best of all- they organized the titles by content area so you can easily browse for a book related to your topic! The list also provides a brief summary/description so you can preview how the book will relate to mathematical concepts.

Go ahead, check it out! Follow the link to learn about some Math-Related Children's Literature. 

Stay tuned for more, Teaching in the A.M.